The Kaiso Blues entertainment venue in Newtown presented a subdued version of jazz composer/musician David Boothman on May 21. Everyone is entitled to an off-night.
It happens. A string bursts. Song selection is not quite right. The audience is not connecting. The sheet music falls to the floor in a hopeless mess. The band isn't clicking, for some unknown reason.
None of that on Boothman's watch, but his kaiso jazz fare might have perhaps been meant for another kind of audience. Fact is, regulars at the Carl Jacobs run establishment are made of much sterner stuff. When blues band, Tabanca, played a few weeks ago for example there was no kidding around with the genre.
It all started off well. Words to the effect that people were somehow becoming confused whenever mention was made of the word "jazz."
This was easy and perfectly understandable reference to the rank confusion surrounding the numerous "jazz" events at which soca, R&B and a variety of disposable pop music are offered up as having some abstruse connection with a genre known for a high level of musical skill, unfettered creative interpretation and novel improvisation.
"Kaiso jazz," he explained, "is a language unique to us."
For certain, Clive Zanda, Raf Robertson, Chantal Esdelle, Boothman himself and other noted keyboardists have long entrenched the genre as a valid progeny of the musical form born of the African American experience in at the turn of the 19th Century. The point, perhaps, still needs to be made.
First up on the night came Boothman's Dancing with the Elements, a dreamy ballad of his own. Percussionist Kenneth Clarke and pan player Mikhail Salcedo offered support. Perhaps it was the monotonous, simulated electronic drum and bass patterns or the constant fiddling on the keyboard controls but the small audience did not appear to be getting too far with this.
South Trouble and a clich�d version of Gershwin's Summertime were followed by an upbeat interpretation of Miles Davis' All Blues from the amazing album Kind of Blue. Unlike the band's rendition of Duke Ellington's Caravan, Boothman seemed to fall off the racing bike with All Blues–a song famously framed by a haunting bassline and with tenor sax interludes by none other than John Coltrane.
For certain, no one expects a cover, but nobody's going to dance a waltz to Black Stalin's Black Man Feeling to Party, in much the same way you won't see a flag-woman limbo to the sound of Wynton Kelly's original rendition of his Kind of Blues piano solo.
It might be that "blues/jazz purist" is the ultimate musical oxymoron. Point taken. But Miles Davis did not expect anyone to wine. All Blues is one of the quintessential blues tunes of all time.
Back to Caravan. This was the highlight of the night, following a pleasant interpretation of Ain't No Sunshine and a somnolent version of karaoke favourite The Shadow of Your Smile.
Caravan brought out the best in the three musicians on show. Boothman knows what he is doing on the keyboard, Salcedo is capable of great things and Clarke is an accomplished and respected percussionist. This was clear at that point in the programme.
This Kaiso Jazz offering slipped off the tracks somewhat but kept on moving on the strength of a superb venue with excellent service and, hopefully, a fruitful future offering bright, new and old musical talent.